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Stubborn Love- A Modern/AU Walking Dead Story	By : ImagineLayla131 Category: S through Z > The Walking Dead Views: 2907 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NOR HAVE ANY AFFILIATIONS WITH TWD FRANCHISE NO MONEY/PROFIT IS BEING MADE!

Chapter List
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Hi everybody! GARETH HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! I originally posted on Saturday, I figured the timing to post was appropriate, considering the 22nd is Andrew J. West's birthday, and it will also be Gareth's birthday in the story. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW, KEEP ROCKING THE SEXY! ;)
November 22nd is also the 3 year anniversary of my favorite uncle's passing. Miss and love you every day, Uncle Brian, and I wish more than anything that you could have been here to see Penelope. :(.
Sorry if anybody seems out of character, but it makes sense in the moment and flows better as the story goes on.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NOR HAVE ANY AFFILIATIONS WITH THE WALKING DEAD. ALL PROPERTIES OWNED BY FRANK DARABONT AND AMC (TELEVISION SERIES), ROBERT KIRKMAN AND TONY MOORE (COMIC BOOK SERIES), RESPECTIVELY. I ONLY OWN MY OWN ORIGINAL IDEAS AND CHARACTERS.
Chapter Four: Raised Stakes
11:30 AM, Woodbury Communications, Chatsworth, CA, Monday, September 1st
RICK
Sitting in my office this morning, I was still confused about last night. Why hadn't I been the one to stop the kiss and why had I let it go that far? I don't think she did it on purpose, I think that she just lost sight of things for a moment. Yes, Melody is a very beautiful girl, but I'm married… to her sister, and I love Lori with all my heart. My mind was in a tailspin of knowing it was wrong to unsure if I enjoyed it or not. Sometimes, it was hard not to look at her, and it had been becoming an increasing problem over the past couple of years with her developing body. I was a good Christian family man, I shouldn't be having impure thoughts about my much younger sister-in-law.
It all started when she finished losing her baby fat a little over two years ago. Melody was laying by the pool one day in a hot pink and gold foil bikini, water glistening off her tanned and now flat stomach as the sun dried her off, her long legs crossed one over the other staring up at the sky with a pair of Chanel sunglasses covering her striking green-grey eyes. I remember just standing there with my mouth hanging open at how great she looked. Ever since then, I would daydream about her from time to time, it got so bad that I started seeing a therapist about it. Dr. Jenner told me it was repressed feelings and that I needed to spend more time with my wife. I was utterly ashamed that I was fantasizing about Melody. Sweet, vulnerable, beautiful, curvaceous Melody…
A knocking at the door averted my thoughts. "Come in." I watched the door open and couldn't believe my luck on who walked in.
"Hey, Rick. I have the final proofs for the Tokyo Mockingjay Part One posters and the North American Sailor Moon Crystal DVD sleeves, I just need you to sign off on them before they go to the printers." It was Gareth Mandel, one of my top graphic designers and the young man that Lori wanted to fix Melody up with.
"Hey, come on in." My nerves were getting shot thinking of how I was going to ask him about his personal life. Why did I get myself in this predicament?
"Here you go." He handed me two blown up pictures.
The first one was the Mockingjay Part One poster, which was the third film in The Hunger Games Saga franchise. It was Katniss Everdeen in the middle with Peeta Meelark on the left side and Gale on the right side, all three of them woven into the background of a mockingjay bird in red and blue flames. "If We Burn You Burn With Us" was written at the top, the title in the middle, and on the bottom it read "The Girl On Fire Burns On".
The second print was a side by side of Sailor Moon, the first half being in her normal schoolgirl attire while the other half was in her Sailor Scout uniform, with the rest of the Sailor Scouts beneath, all surrounded by the background of the starry night sky and the moon.
"Wow, Gareth, these really are incredible. You've got quite the talent." I smiled as I signed off. Gareth Mandel was something of a prodigy here at Woodbury. He had only been with us a month when he landed the meeting with Disney and an eight figure deal as well. That's incredibly rare for not only a first timer, but for pretty much almost anybody that wasn't Donald Trump or a Vanderbilt.
"Thanks, I couldn't have done it without my team though." He returned the smile. I could see where Lori would want to fix Melody up with him, and I could also see where she thought he kind of resembled Aiden. Most of the graphic designers here dressed like they were hanging out at a skate park or comic book store, but Gareth was always well put together. He dressed nicely in crisp shirts with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, slightly loose silk ties, oxblood leather shoes and dress pants, along with the black and blue rectangular glasses that he wore from time to time, certainly looking like a professional. Gareth had a really good head on his shoulders, along with being intelligent, articulate, and sharp. Maybe he would be exactly what Melody needed, if he agreed to go out with her…
"You're quite the leader. Hey, sit down for a moment, there's some things I want to discuss with you." I leaned back in my chair.
He gave a questioning look, but sat down across from me anyway. "Uh, ok. Is there a problem?"
"No, not at all, nothing like that. You've been with Woodbury for a little over a year now, and in that time you've made a tremendous impact with the accounts you brought in and the overall company enlargement."
"Well, I've been told I have the moxie and attitude to go the distance." He smiled before pulling a ball back on the Newton's Cradle, watching as the balls went back and forth, hitting each other. My desk was known for having the most toys and pictures, thanks to Melody and Carl surprising me one day with a revamped desk, but I left it because it was kind of sweet.
"You certainly do, but I'm just curious if it conflicts with your personal life at all?"
"No, not really. I mean, I don't have much of a personal life. I spend a lot of time with my family, go out every now and then, but I haven't been seriously dating anybody since I broke things off with my fiancé at the beginning of the year. Turns out she cheated on me, but I'm better off."
"Mmhmm. I'm sorry to hear that." I nodded, deciding to just go with it. "Did you happen to hear about that LMU student that was stabbed to death about six months ago?"
Gareth's face grimaced slightly and he nodded. "I did, unfortunately. Such a tragedy, my brother Alex knew him through the party circuit, and I met him a couple times. What about Aiden?"
"Yes, it's terrible. Well, he was best friends with my wife's baby sister, Melody. There were kind of some unrequited feelings between them, and she's been terribly depressed ever since he passed away. Here," I handed him a picture of me, Lori, Carl, and Melody from Lori's 30th birthday party two years ago. "This is her."
I watched as he studied the picture and his eyes widened slightly. The picture wasn't entirely accurate, but there wasn't much of a difference from how she looked then and how she looked now, despite what she thought. "Wow, she-she's quite a looker, Rick. I'm sorry, where do I come in with all of this?" Gareth handed the picture back to me. "You want me to take her out, don't you?"
I could feel heat rising to my face, he really was astute. A part of me wanted to scratch the idea and change the subject, but this wasn't for me. This was for Melody and more or less, it was also for Lori.
"Sort of, yes. Yes, I do. Look, I know that this all sounds incredibly unconventional, but for some reason my wife thinks that a date is what she needs and she was raving on and on about you. I'll make it worth your while though. For some time now, Shane and I have been discussing making you a partner of the company, which includes a 5% raise, due to your extraordinary work. Also, you'll be reimbursed for the dates, if there's more than one." If this didn't work, I'd feel like I'd never be able to show my face in the office again, I just hoped he wouldn't tell anybody.
Gareth just kind of stared at me, first in shock, then something that looked like a smirk. "You do realize this sort of has a Pygmalion feel to it, right?"
"Yes, yes, I do. I'm doing this for her because she's pretty much like my baby sister, and I'll do whatever I can to help her out. Regardless, you earned the raise and promotion, just think of this as an added incentive."
He hesitated, which made me all the more anxious. What if I end up getting sued for bribery or extortion? I might have just kissed my career goodbye, and I had to reverse the damage somehow. "Gareth, I-"
"I'll do it."
"Excuse me?" I blinked in surprise.
"Yes, I'll do it. How does Friday night sound?"
"I-I think it sounds perfect." I was still in shock that he had actually agreed to this, either he was incredibly optimistic or just money hungry, but he didn't strike me as the dirty player type.
"Great. What do I have to lose, right?" He cracked a smile, and I could feel myself beginning to breathe again.
FIVE MINUTES LATER
LORI
I was in the family room finishing up one of my scrapbooks when the chorus of "Forever And For Always" by Shania Twain blasted from my phone. With a huge smile on my face, I answered. "Hi, hun. What's going on?"
"Hey, beautiful. I'm calling to tell you that your little plan worked."
My smile widened. "With Gareth? You mean…"
"Yes, he agreed to go out with Melody."
"YAY!" I jumped up from my spot on the couch, cheering with my fist in the air, which sent my scrapbook and all the pictures that had been in my lap flying to the floor, and I already knew that Rick had to hold the phone away from his ear. Laughing, I bent over to pick up everything as I set the phone on the coffee table and put it on speaker. "Sorry, I'm just so excited! I can't believe he's going for it! What did he say? Is he excited, too? Did you show him a picture? I hope you showed him a picture, Rick!"
The sound of my husband's laughter filled the room. "Motormouth, calm down! I showed him a picture, he kind of figured it out before I could even ask and he's game for Friday night."
"That's perfect." I was ecstatic, my matchmaking skills were totally going to pay off this time, I could feel it. "It's about time that she goes out with a quality guy, unlike that Randall." Randall had been Melody's on-again, off-again boyfriend since she was sixteen and the one she lost her virginity to. He was two years older than her, slightly illiterate with crooked teeth and a bulbous nose, she was the only one that thought he looked identical to Jake Gyllenhaal, but Melody kept going back for more until she turned eighteen and kicked Randall to the curb for good. I blame it on age, she was and still is young enough to make mistakes dating wise. Although, Randall had seen her a few weeks after Aiden died trying to get back together, but Melody didn't go for it an umpteenth time, thank Jesus and Moses.
"Trust me, Gareth is nothing at all like that weasel Randall. I'll show you all the accounts he's signed on to prove it."
"I believe you, Rick. I can't wait until Melody finds out, I hope she'll go for it." I had a feeling she would, especially when she saw how good looking and down to earth Gareth was. Who knows what could happen? This could go really well or really bad, but either way, the sky was the limit…
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
MELODY
I felt myself wince when I looked down at my phone to see Rick was calling. While I wasn't proud about what happened, the discussion regarding last night could not be avoided. With a deep breath, I answered the phone. "Hi, Rick. I know what this call is about." I was prepared for him to tell me that I had to move out, I had been looking for places on Craigslist all morning.
"Hi, Melody, that's actually not the entire reason why I'm calling, but we do need to discuss what happened last night." He was stammering, this must have been just as hard on him as it was on me. This wasn't a pleasant situation, and in my opinion, he was just as much to blame as I was.
"I just want you to know how sorry I am. It was wrong and inappropriate of me to cross such a boundary, especially when I know better. Honestly, I haven't been myself lately, not to mention I was slightly inebriated. Will things ever be how they used to for us? You know that I would never want to do anything to ruin what we have." My eyes brimmed with tears as I spoke. While I felt sad, I really had nobody to blame but myself.
"I'm just as much to blame as you are, Melody, so don't be so hard on yourself. It was in the heat of the moment, on both of our ends, and I also feel that we should wait until after the baby is born to tell Lori." Rick had a point. Lori's pregnancy with Carl hadn't been the easiest. She developed toxemia and tore a hole in her esophagus from vomiting all nine months, she was also anemic and had to have an emergency C-Section, Lori almost didn't make it, and I'll be damned if something happens this time around because of my selfishness.
"I agree, that's for the best. Is there anything else?" I silently exhaled in relief, hoping it wouldn't be torture to keep this a secret for the next seven months, but maybe it wouldn't since at the end of it all, the right thing would be done.
"Yes, I called because I have a little bit of a surprise for you."
"Really? What is it?" A knock at the door interrupted what Rick's reply was going to be. "Hold on a second, that's probably your wife." I held the phone away from my ear. "Come in." Sure enough, my sister came strolling into my room with a thousand watt smile on her face. "Hi, Lori."
"Hi, Melody! I have big news for you! Who are you on the phone with?"
"Your husband. Rick, I told you a thousand million times! You can't tease me with a Frozen sequel! It's already torture not knowing when the hell the musical is coming to Broadway! Do you take some sick pleasure in torturing me about seeing more of one of my favorite Disney princesses?" Judging by his laughter, I could tell he was relieved how quickly I changed the subject to diffuse the elephant that had barely left the room before Lori's arrival.
"Oh, good! Put him on speaker phone, we have a surprise for you." She sat down on the bed, still smiling.
"Alright. Rick, you're on speaker phone." I set the phone down in front of us.
"Hi, Rick."
"Hi. Anyways, Melody, the surprise is I set you up on a date with Gareth Mandel for this Friday night."
"You mean "Steve Jobs, Jr."? Wonder Boy?" Why on earth would Rick set me up with him? If he was anything like Martin the Moron, Gareth would be a skirt chasing misogynistic pig trying to get into my pants. What was Rick thinking?!
"Ha, is that what you call him? And yes, that's who it is. He's a nice young man. It was actually your sister's idea."
I could feel myself tensing up as Lori nodded triumphantly. "You guys, I don't know. I mean, it's been a while since I've been on an actual date date."
My sister spoke next. "Melody, you'll like him, he's a great guy. Plus, he kind of looks like Josh Hutcherson, and I know how you think he's so cute. I've already talked to Lilly, you're going to be getting a whole spa day. Partial weave, mani/pedi, waxing, facials, whatever you want. Besides, what better time to get back out there than now?"
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point. There was no use in wallowing forever, I had to bring myself back to life, and maybe a date would be a good start. "Alright, fine. I'll do it."
Lori smiled and threw her arms around me. "I'm so happy, Melody. You won't regret it."
Laughing, I returned the hug. My sister's enthusiasm was indeed contagious, because now I was actually a bit curious. "Besides, what could I possibly have to lose?"
GARETH
Walking back to my office, I couldn't believe what just happened. I had been propositioned by my boss to take out his sister-in-law. Honestly, I didn't know whether to laugh or not. Needless to say, being in Southern California never ceased to amaze me, starting with my uprising of success.
I was a green rookie, fresh off the plane from San Francisco and almost two months after art school graduation, but I had the skills and articulate of a groomed professional. Before Woodbury recruited me, they were working with a lot of businesses unknown by the public, and I took it upon myself to change that. After calling every day for a month, I finally got the top Disney Imagineers to hear my pitch, and twenty minutes later, Rick and Shane were signing a 10 year, $100 million dollar deal. That was baseball money! Ever since then, I've kind of been on a Midas streak. After Disney, there was O*P*I Nails, Frito Lays, Carnival Cruises, Lionsgate, True Religion Jeans, Jaguar, Swarovski, Judith Lieber, Smart Water, Jones Soda, the upcoming Call of Duty video games, I just kept knocking the deals out of the park. The more accounts we picked up, the more workers were hired and the business expanded in less than a year, which was amazing considering the sluggish economy.
Growing up, money like this was a dream, and I definitely wasn't used to it now. Although we weren't dirt poor, we most certainly were not filthy rich, either. I've been working since I was eight years old, starting as a batboy for the San Francisco Giants. Thanks to puberty and a growth spurt, at fourteen, I was able to land a job as a Starbucks barista, eventually becoming the barista manager. True, I pretty much became an overnight sensation at Woodbury, but I never let it get to my head. I worked my ass off to get here. Juggling two full time jobs, reading every book in the library, skipping out on parties and school functions to study for hours on end, interning for Levi's, I never had a report card with anything less than an A-, and I did all this while taking care of my four younger siblings.
I had changed a lot about myself since arriving in Southern California. In less than a year, I had gone from hipster to yuppie, but I liked to think of myself as a combination of both, and it didn't stop there. Being a vegetarian and then vegan for pretty much my whole life, it was almost a little too easy becoming a carnivore. Other things were a little too easy as well, such as going to the gym regularly (not that I needed to, I was naturally slender, but now I had actual muscle tone) and driving a Jaguar XKR convertible, even my wardrobe was different now, as was my last name. My birth name is Gareth Adam Mandelbaumowitz, but I shortened it to Mandel because in the business world it's easier to remember. Some people might refer to all the things I did as selling out, but I prefer to call it evolution. In life, change is inevitable, and I was embracing it head on.
I get a 5% commission cut from every account I bring in, along with my yearly salary, which at this point seemed insignificant because of all the deals. It takes quite the ordeal to get somebody to go into a business deal. Lots of schmoozing, dining at five star restaurants, spending hours on a golf course, even getting illegal Cuban cigars imported, all to make a sale. Unfortunately, I've also bedded a few female clients as well. The reps from Judith Lieber and Jaguar still contact me wanting a hookup. It's not something I was proud of, and I never did it until after I broke up with my fiancé, even though I was being hit on when I was engaged, but I will do whatever I have to do within the realm of possibility to get the job. Working at Woodbury was kind of like that show Mad Men, albeit a lot less drinking. Except once the ink dried, it paid off. I was able to move my family into a nice house in Encino, even adding on a unit so each of my siblings could have a room of their own. I paid off my student loans, my credit cards, restarted my retirement account and started college funds for my siblings. With all the financial responsibilities out of the way, there was still so much left over. I invested in stocks and artwork, still contemplating if I should buy some property somewhere, maybe when the real estate market is better. My brother Alex told me I should buy a yacht, but that just seems way too over the top. Regardless of my newfound wealth, I'm still pretty frugal over flashy, the only exceptions being the Jaguar and a Rolex watch I treated myself to on my birthday last November.
This is the first time I've ever been set up on a blind date before, although technically it wasn't all too blind since I've seen Melody's picture, but she doesn't know what I look like at all. From that one picture, she was an absolutely beautiful girl, and I felt kind of bad for her considering what happened to Aiden. In a way, I understood Rick's point on getting her to meet new people, I just had no idea what she's looking for. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on it. This is also the first date I've been on since I dumped my fiancé after catching her in bed with our stupid bleached blonde pool boy. Who knows what could happen with Melody? We could meet and fall in love or have the worst date of our lives and never see each other again. Maybe she'll turn out to be a total bitch or she'll think I'm a complete asshole. Either way, it's the push I need to get back into dating, it had been a very long hiatus. Whatever happens, surprises are a great thing, and that's exactly what I was hoping would happen: A fantastic surprise.
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Stubborn Love- A Modern/AU Walking Dead Story